THE ANGLER 155 



that seems less fitted to the rapture of any living 

 thing. The sad, waste spot, which the song of the 

 dying swan woke to joy, could not have been sadder 

 than this. Yet, turning home with the longing for 

 light and warmth, I thought I had never before 

 heard the paean more joyous. 



An astonishing thing about the lapwing flock in 

 winter is that without organisation it should yet 

 move with the order, punctuality, simultaneity, which 

 in human societies can only be achieved by perfect 

 organisation. Rooks display the same qualities as 

 the lapwings, but as rooks spend their lives in flocks, 

 it does not strike us as so astonishing in them. 

 Rooks are always in practice, working together. The 

 lapwings live out of the flock half, or more than 

 half, the year; yet young and old alike young 

 that have never lived the flock life before no sooner 

 collect in the autumn than they are drill perfect. 

 Their movements have not the variety of the starling 

 flock; they do not cut that wonderful series of 

 figures in the air ; but for bird simultaneity I think 

 they are surpassed not even by the starling. It 

 is good to be a hundred yards from a great flock 

 of lapwings in December, five hundred strong, perhaps, 

 when it comes down into the ploughed field to feed. 



Acres of ground, where the lapwings settle, begin 

 to dance and quiver with black and white ! 



Even on a dull morning this is a very pretty 

 thing to see; if the sun came out the white would 



